Former Huntington Bank Manager Sentenced for Embezzling from the Elderly

U.S. Attorney’s Office
December 19, 2013

Northern District of West Virginia(304) 234-0100

ELKINS, WV—United States Attorney William J. Ihlenfeld, II announced that a former branch manager from Huntington National Bank was sentenced to 37 months in prison for stealing nearly $250,000 from accounts belonging to elderly customers.

Deborah D. Radcliff, age 51, of Weston, West Virginia, was sentenced to over three years in prison by Chief Judge John Preston Bailey and was also ordered to repay the victims of her crime. Judge Bailey made a specific finding that Radcliff had methodically selected her victims due to their age. Radcliff had previously entered guilty pleas to the felony offenses of embezzlement by a bank employee and one count of structuring.

“Ms. Radcliff preyed upon her most vulnerable customers at the bank in order to line her own pockets,” said Ihlenfeld. “Anyone who targets the elderly in a scheme like this deserves a significant punishment like the one imposed by the court.”

During the period July 1, 2011, to November 5, 2012, while serving as the branch manager of Huntington Bank in Weston, Radcliff embezzled and misapplied $247,249.88 from customers’ accounts and engaged in acts of structuring to cause the bank to fail to file a Currency Transaction Report for currency transactions of $10,000 or more. To execute the scheme, Radcliff utilized her position as branch manager to issue or direct to be issued cashier’s checks from funds withdrawn from customer accounts issued in the name of the customer. Radcliff would then take possession of the cashier’s check, forge the name of the depositor and cash the checks for her own personal benefit. The ages of the alleged victims ranged from 56 to 90 years, with all but one alleged victim 64 years or older.

Radcliff, who is free on bond, will report to federal prison in February.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney John C. Parr and investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service, with cooperation from the Huntington National Bank’s Corporate Security Office.